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Friday, February 07, 2014

Baked Chicken Strips Recipe with Mustard, Almond, and Parmesan

Baked Chicken Strips with Mustard, Almond, and Parmesan are kid-friendly and delicious!

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites. These delicious Baked Chicken Strips with Mustard, Almond, and Parmesan were first posted in 2008 and I've made them quite a few times since then. I'm reducing the cooking time from what was in the original recipe because now I like them slightly less done.)

I'd recommend this recipe for someone who's starting the South Beach Diet but cooking for a family and trying to think of what the kids will eat that's also phase one! These chicken strips coated with almond meal (or almond flour) and Parmesan instead of bread crumbs are delicious, plus you can prep them the night before, marinate all day while you're at work, and cook them when you get home.

I do want to warn you though, if this chicken had been slightly less delicious I might never have posted the recipe. I tried two versions to try to get the coating to stick to the chicken and not fall off when you turn it. (I didn't have that problem when I made Parmesan Chicken, but that recipe has breadcrumbs, which I didn't want for this.)

In the end it turned out not to matter, because by the second time I made this I didn't care if some coating fell off in the pan, and even on the plate (you can see it in the picture!) This tasted so great, I gobbled it up both days I tested the recipe. Just be prepared with the thought that you'll have to use non-stick spray and turn these very carefully and even then some of the coating will fall off, but it will be OK. Trust me.

Coating Ingredients:
2 T Parmesan cheese (freshly grated or coarsely grated, not the kind that comes in a can)
3/4 cup almond meal or almond flour (You can also grind 3/4 cup almonds in the food processor, but it can be tricky to get it finely ground without turning it into almond butter!)
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste (I didn't use much salt)

Instructions:

Trim any visible fat or tendons from chicken, then cut each piece into crosswise strips about 1 inch wide. Whisk together mayo, Dijon, white balsamic vinegar, water, garlic powder, and poultry seasoning. Place chicken strips and marinade in plastic bag and marinate in refrigerator for 3-4 hours or as long as all day.

When ready to cook, let marinated chicken come to room temperature while you preheat oven to 450F/230C. Use a food processor to finely grind the almond meal, Parmesan, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper, and put coating in large flat bowl. Spray non-stick baking sheet well with non-stick spray. Dip each chicken piece into coating, turning to coat both sides, and arrange in single layer on baking sheet.

Bake without turning for 12-15 minutes, or until top side is quite browned and underneath is starting to brown. Then use metal turner and go under each piece of chicken to be sure it's not stuck to the pan, then carefully turn each piece. Some of the coating will fall off and possibly get too browned in the pan, so don't worry about it. Cook 10-12 minutes more until chicken is well browned and cooked through. Total cooking time will be 20-25 minutes, depending on your pan. Serve hot. (Edit: if you're reheating this in the microwave, be very careful not to overcook or it will get very dry. It is definitely best fresh from the oven.)

The coating on this chicken is relatively high in fat for a South Beach friendly dish, but there's a minimal amount of Parmesan, and the mayo and almond meal both contain "good" fat. Be sure to consider the almond meal as your allowance of nuts for the day if you're eating this for phase one.

Nutritional Information?

I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you.

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Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and this blog earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

Do you think this would have enough flavor with the mustard omitted? Other than the mustard, it sounds like a recipe right up my alley (love almonds, love parmesan). Mustard is one of the few foods that I truly despise. I can handle it in tiny quantities, but this amount would be taste-able, I think. :-)

Zoe, I do think you could make this without the mustard, but you'd need to replace it with something else. I might try 2 1/2 T mayo and 1 1/2 T white balsamic vinegar. You could also use something completely different in place of mustard; there are lots of possibilities that might be good (Ranch dressing is one that comes to mind.)

For the combo of 2 1/2 T mayo and 1 1/2 T balsamic vinegar I might add a tiny bit more poultry seasoning. Let me know if you try a variation, I'd love to hear how it turns out.

Wow this was delicious!! One of my new favorite dinners. I've been following your blog for a while but only recently did I actually start the diet and this has been the best thing I've tried yet! Your blog has really made it so much easier, thank you!

Hi Kayln,I made this recipe last night and it was so easy to make and very tasty. I took the suggestion of one of your other posters and made it on a wire rack (sprayed with cooking spray!) on a foil-lined cookie sheet. My only recommendation is to still turn the chicken strips over as your recipe suggests as the bottoms didn't get browned like the top. I turned them over and they lost a bit of the coating, but it wasn't too a great loss. We'd definitely make them again. Thanks again for your great recipes!

I cooked this dish last night for my family and they all loved it! My husband and I just started South Beach and when I found your blog I wanted to cry! Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into this blog! It's so well organized and everything is easy to find. Loved this recipe and will be visting here again to find more!

Kayln- I cooked this dish for my family last night and they ALL loved it. My littel sister said it doesn't even taste like "diet food". Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into this site! It makes the SB lifestyle A TON easier!

This is one of my absolute favorite South Beach Diet dinners!! It's delicious! I like having some in the fridge left over for a (small) snack the next day...I think it's yummy cold (though I might be the only one). :) Thanks, Kalyn!

I'm not sure how this would work without almonds. If they can eat other types of nuts, I'd grind up some peanuts or cashews and use in place of the almonds. It may work without doing that, but I can't really say for sure.

Well of course you *could* make it with regular balsamic vinegar, but I honestly don't know how it would work, since I haven't tried it that way. Seems like the vinegar will turn the coating dark, but it might be okay.

I made this last night for my family. I tried the wire rack as some other people had suggested I didn't turn chicken but it was evenly browned and the crust stayed on really well. I didn't have almond meal so I finely ground almonds and it truned out great. Everyone in my family loved it. I gave the receipe to my sister to make for my 1 year old niece. Thanks Kalyn for all your hard work. I will be trying more of your stuff in the future.

Great recipe, I was excited to try it. But at 450 degrees, it was way overcooked. I baked for 15 minutes, chicken was already done but coating was not crispy. I put the broiler on and that worked to crisp the outside but I ended up with really dry chicken. Very sad, not sure what the right temp and time would be.

I keep all my old recipe binders so that if someone has a problem with a recipe like you did I can go back and look it up. My notes for this say say 450F, cook 15-20 minutes, turn carefully and cook 10 minutes more. I would have been cooking it in a toaster oven, which could have made a difference. I see there are several comments from people who had success with it, but one other person who thought it was overdone.

I'd have to guess at what made the difference, but maybe the thickness of the chicken or how cold it was when it went into the oven would affect it. Also some ovens can be much hotter than others even if set at the same temp. If you liked it, I'd try again at 400F and start to check a little sooner.

Kalyn, made this chicken tonight and it was so good. I did have trouble with the coating sticking to the pan instead of the chicken so I'll either try putting it on parchment paper in the pan (sprayed with Pam) or use a rack like someone else did. Putting the recipe in my cookbook. Thanks!!

I tried making this for lunch today. Final result was tasty but despite being super careful I did lose a fair bit of crumb.

I have a recipe given to me by a family friend that is similiar but has a cornflake crumb with a yoghurt marinade (I don't know if thats South Beach friendly, I come here for the recipes and leave the diets for someone else)

Thanks for all the low-carb/SB recipes. They can be a real God-send. I tried the chicken fingers today. Worked just great. Some crust loss, but not that much. I enjoyed it with a roasted red pepper-based, no-sugar BBQ sauce. Perfect for a late summer day.

Thanks for joining the conversation! I love hearing from readers and even though I can't always reply to every comment, I will always answer specific questions on a recipe as soon as possible. Sometimes I'm answering by iPhone, so my replies may be short!

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